Focus on energy China became Russia’s top trading partner following after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Beijing has said it is neutral in the conflict while maintaining trade ties with the Kremlin despite economic and financial sanctions by the US and Europe. China is the top customer for Russian oil and gas supplies, and Moscow expects the war in Iran to increase the demand. China also has ignored demands from the West to stop providing high-tech components for Russia’s weapons industries. Ushakov said
Russia’s oil exports to China grew by 35% in the first quarter of 2026 and that Russia is one of the biggest exporters of natural gas to China. During “the crisis in the Middle East”, Russia remains a reliable energy supplier and China is a “responsible consumer”, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said. ‘Old friend’ Xi has played host to a series of world leaders as an increasingly unpredictable United States under Trump pushed many to shore up alliances with Beijing, and the war in
Iran has further accelerated the trend. Russia-China ties have deepened since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Putin visiting Beijing every year since as his country is shunned by Western powers. Putin’s visit promises to be less opulent than Trump’s, emphasising that “the Xi-Putin relationship does not require that kind of performative reassurance”, said Patricia Kim from the Brookings Institution in Washington. Xi welcomed Putin with open arms as an “old friend” when he last visited Beijing in September 2025 – language
the Chinese leader did not extend to Trump last week. Both Putin and Xi view ties as “structurally stronger and more stable” than those between China and the United States, she told AFP. Beijing has regularly called for talks to end the war in Ukraine but has never condemned Russia for sending in troops, presenting itself instead as a neutral party. But with Russia reliant on sales to China to sustain its war effort, “Putin does not want to lose that support”, Asia Society’s Lyle
Morris told AFP. Middle East priorities When it comes to the US-Israeli war on Iran, though, China and Russia may have different priorities. Russia has sought to capitalise on the energy crisis and rocketing oil prices spurred by the closure of the Hormuz strait. Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov had said after meeting Xi in April that Russia could “compensate” for China’s energy shortages as the Middle East war hits global supplies. China, however, wants the Middle East conflict concluded as soon as possible. Xi
underlined in talks with Putin that further hostilities in the Middle East is “inadvisable” as he said a “comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency”. “(China) relies on the freedom of the world’s major waterways to sustain its economic activities, and would prefer that the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz end sooner rather than later,” James Char of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University told AFP. (FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Beijing visit, China-Russia ties, Ukraine invasion 2022, energy trade, Russian oil exports to China, natural gas, sanctions, high-tech components, Middle East war, Iran, Hormuz strait, ceasefire, Yuri Ushakov, Sergei Lavrov